Secret Folly

“Stolen water is sweet,

And bread eaten in secret is pleasant.”

-Proverbs 9:17

I don’t want to write this particular devotional. I had a whole plan in mind, and 20 minutes ago, God said, “Nope.”

So I squirmed and avoided it for a few minutes. Scrolled through Facebook trying to pretend I didn’t just hear God tell me what He just told me. But I knew what He wanted me to write, and to ignore it would just be blatant disobedience.

Dang. It.

Because this verse hits my biggest struggle square on the head: food and secrets. We all have those sin struggles we keep hidden, don’t we? Out of shame, or pride, or just unwillingness to deal with them, we keep them locked away. Mine is food. It is very difficult for me to maintain a healthy relationship with it, and that produces a lot of guilt and shame. So I shove it away where I don’t have to look at it. Where I don’t talk about it. Where others won’t know it’s there and won’t ask me about it. But then, it also never stops being a struggle.

But this passage puts secret sin under the “Folly” category. Keeping our struggles and our sins secret is just straight-up foolishness. The more we hide them, the more power they begin to hold over us. They become an easy place for Satan to speak lies to us, to continue to hold us in captivity to them. They lead only to death. Verse 18 of this chapter goes on to tell us that Folly’s guests end up in “the depths of Sheol.” Literal hell, death, misery.

Unlocking the door and exposing those secret sins and battles is scary, sometimes even terrifying. But revealing them also begins to remove their power over us. Revealing them means placing our trust in Jesus rather than in ourselves and our own willpower or discipline.

Earlier in the chapter, Wisdom calls to us to “leave [our] simple ways and live, and walk in the way of insight.” That sounds a whole lot like the repentance to which the gospel calls us...or more accurately, invites us. In Proverbs 9, what’s waiting for those that “leave [their] simple ways” and accept Wisdom’s invitation is a glorious feast and a generous teacher/host. For us when we “leave [our] simple ways,” what’s waiting for us is grace, and hope, and yes, still a generous teacher/host. Not condemnation, not punishment, but grace.

This chapter presents us with a choice: Wisdom offers life following repentance. Folly offers secrets and death. As much as that sounds like an easy choice, I know it is still a battle for many of us, including myself.

So join me in praying that we will put our trust in Wisdom’s offer; Jesus’ offer. That we would be willing to bravely lay down our secrets, and accept life and victory over them instead. That God would provide someone safe and trustworthy in our lives to walk beside us “in the way of insight” so that we can truly live.

Blessings,

Connie